There is often a need to capture the color of a sample and determine the closest match for the color of that sample from an existing database. For example, a user may want to find out the paint color of a wall or piece of furniture. To do so, they might search through the paint manufacturer's fan deck to identify the color. As an alternative to a tedious manual search, a colorimeter or a spectrophotometer can be used to identify a color of interest. Such devices are both expensive and inconvenient to use. Furthermore, a user is unlikely to bring such a specialty devices on trips, tours, scouting events or excursions.
Efforts have been made to use images taken with a camera to select color from a database. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,634,640 to Nina Bhatti et. al. (herein incorporated by reference as if presented in its entirety) teaches a method to select a color palette from a camera image, aided with a reference color chart. In that method, matrix transformations are used to convert images taken with an unknown illuminant to known illuminant, and thus eliminate the need of controlled illumination. However, since matrix transformations are linear operations, the method taught by Bhatti has strict requirements for the hardware used by the system. Additionally, the system taught by Bhatti is sensitive to noise, resulting in diminished performance under a wide range of operational conditions.
Thus, what is needed is a more robust solution that permits the accurate determination of color values across a wide range of operation and lighting conditions. Indeed, it will be helpful to have a system and method that utilizes available cameras such as those in smartphones, to acquire an image and use the data captured in the image to identify a color reference pattern taken under similar illumination. Furthermore, what is needed in the art are systems, methods and computer program products for evaluating color values of an image and searching for the same or similar colors in a collection of colors offered by various color vendors.